The present invention generally relates to sealing vials or bottles with caps and, more specifically, to manually operated crimping devices used for such purposes.
In the area of scientific or medical testing, for example, small vials may be filled with a liquid and sealed with an appropriate cap. Some vials and caps may include mating threads for securing the cap to the vial and other caps may be pressed or snapped onto the vial. The present invention is related to vials that require a cap or seal to be crimped onto the open end of the vial. These vials may be referred to as crimp top vials and the crimp cap or seal must often be connected to the vial in a hermetically sealed manner.
In many testing facilities, it is common to use a manually operated cap crimping device essentially comprising a set of jaws actuated by a pair of handles to crimp a cap onto the open end of a vial. One such crimping device may be obtained from National Scientific Company, based in Lawrenceville, Ga., under Catalog No. C4012-100. Although several types of manually operated crimping devices are known, each type generally requires that the user manually place a cap onto the vial before each crimping operation. That is, these devices do not feed caps to the crimping mechanism. Quite often, a testing laboratory may be automated to handle the testing of several hundred or thousands of vials of liquid per day. In gas chromatography testing, for example, automated sampling devices may utilize trays holding one hundred or more sealed vials. When lab technicians or other scientific or medical personnel are dealing with such high numbers of test vials each day, the manual crimping operation is quite time consuming and labor intensive.
For at least the above reasons, it would be desirable to provide various improvements to manually operated crimping devices for allowing the user to more quickly and efficiently fill and seal numerous vials or bottles, while still enabling the use of a relatively simple and inexpensive manually operated cap crimping device.
To address the above noted problems, the present invention contemplates a manually operable cap crimping device that includes a crimping mechanism, which may be conventional in design, and a unique cap indexing mechanism operating in conjunction with the crimping mechanism. The crimping device may also include a replaceable cap supply cartridge. A crimping and indexing actuator, such as a handle of the crimping device, alternately operates the cap indexing mechanism and the crimping mechanism. In this manner, when the crimping and indexing actuator is actuated once by squeezing the handle, for example, a cap will be fed into position for crimping. After a vial or bottle has been inserted between jaws associated with the crimping mechanism, the handle may be actuated again causing the jaws to crimp the cap onto the vial or bottle.
As mentioned above, a unique replaceable cap supply cartridge is provided to supply caps to the indexing mechanism of the invention. The cartridge holds a large supply of caps for the crimping device and serially feeds caps to the crimping mechanism preferably by way of the indexing mechanism. The replaceable cap supply cartridge includes a main body having a cap containment portion for receiving a supply of crimp caps. The cap containment portion further includes an exit appropriately aligned with the cap indexing mechanism of the crimping device. A connector portion is also provided on the main body and is adapted to releasably connect the cartridge to the manually operated cap crimping mechanism in such a manner to allow the serial feeding of caps to the crimping mechanism. The connector portion is preferably a slide connector.
The main body of the cap supply cartridge preferably includes a plate member having first and second faces. The cap containment portion may advantageously comprise a serpentine-shaped recess contained in the first face. The recess is formed in a serpentine shape not only to provide for the serial feeding of caps, but also to allow for a large number of caps to be stored in a relatively small main body. At least one and preferably both side walls of the recess converge at an angle to reduce frictional contact with the caps. It is contemplated, however, that the cap containment portion may take many other forms and shapes as well. The cartridge preferably further comprises a second plate member attached to the first face to enclose the recess. This second plate member may be at least partially transparent to allow the supply of caps to be determined by the user. It is contemplated that other visible indicators of the supply of caps may also be incorporated into the cartridge. The exit of the cap containment portion is preferably located at a relative lower portion of the cartridge such that caps may be fed to the crimping mechanism by gravity.
As mentioned above, a cap indexing mechanism is provided for allowing a user to selectively feed caps proximate to a set of crimping jaws associated with the crimping mechanism of the device. The replaceable cap supply cartridge may be included as a connected part of this indexing mechanism. Generally, the cap indexing mechanism comprises cap feeding structure including a feed channel for containing a supply of caps and ending with an opening for allowing insertion of the open end of a vial or bottle. An indexing element is mounted for movement relative to the feed channel for selectively feeding caps to the opening. An index actuating member is operatively connected for movement with the indexing element and is operatively connected to the actuator of the crimping mechanism, such as one of the handles thereof. Movement of the handle will cause the index actuating member to move the indexing element and thereby selectively feed caps to the opening. The indexing element and the index actuating member preferably have cam surfaces that mate to cause movement of the indexing element upon movement of the index actuating member. A biasing element normally biases the indexing element into a position preventing movement of caps from the feed channel to the opening. The indexing element includes a slot for receiving a cap from the feed channel during an indexing operation.
The cap indexing mechanism of the invention preferably includes at least one connector for connecting the indexing mechanism to the cap crimping mechanism. This converts the crimping mechanism into a self-feeding crimping device. The feed channel of the cap indexing mechanism is curved and gravity feeds caps from a generally vertical orientation to a generally horizontal orientation with open sides of the caps facing downward at the opening. Preferably, the feed channel is a recess contained in a first curved plate member, like the replaceable cap supply cartridge mentioned above, and a second curved plate member is likewise attached to retain caps within the channel during operation. The replaceable cap supply cartridge is preferably connected with the indexing mechanism so that, operating together, the cap supply cartridge and the indexing mechanism serially feed caps to the crimping mechanism.
It will be appreciated that the present invention, including the self-feeding cap crimping device, the cap indexing mechanism, the replaceable cap supply cartridge, and various associated methods present many advantages to the user. Notably, users may apply caps to several hundred vials or bottles per day more quickly and in a more simplified manner by using the replaceable cap supply cartridge and indexing mechanism of the invention. Replaceable cartridges containing many caps may be stored and simply attached to the indexing mechanism of the cap crimping device, as necessary.
Other advantages and objects of the invention will become more readily apparent of those of ordinary skill upon review of the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.